This Singaporean startup goes beyond bikes, lets people share electric scooters

Neuron’s electric scooter and its smart charging dock. Photo credit: Neuron Mobility.

Singapore hasn’t been spared from the onslaught of bike-sharing startups, as the colorful multitudes of Obike, Mobike, Ofo, and who knows who else at this point, can attest to.

Local startup Neuron Mobility has a slightly different plan: what if dockless bikes but also, docked electric scooters? The startup provides both bicycles that work similarly to other companies’ but its killer feature is a scooter that’s parked at a dedicated grounded dock. Users book both of them through the same mobile app.

Neuron co-founder Zachary Wang is a National University of Singapore alum. An automotive engineer, he specialized in electric vehicles and tried his hand at startups before – he co-founded residential solar power provider Rezeca Renewables.

But he is passionate about finding ways to help people get around more efficiently. “Mobility is something I’ve loved since day one,” he tells Tech in Asia.

Charging

A bicycle, an electric scooter, a docking station that doubles as a charger for said scooter, and an app comprise Neuron’s offering. There’s automatic locks, QR codes to unlock them with, a refundable deposit, and a usage fee. So far, so bike-sharing.

The less visible part, which Wang feels is key to the company’s purpose, involves a robust data analytics system that helps improve the service in a number of ways.

Neuron can track which areas see more demand for bookings and at what times.

For example, Neuron can track which docks are occupied and which are not, which areas see more demand for bookings and at what times, and even where the scooters and bikes are ridden. For now, this helps the startup figure out where there’s demand for its vehicles and how many of them to deploy.

But in the future, the data could help with more complex features. One possible scenario could be, say, the system detecting you’re riding your scooter outside the range of a charger (which would likely result in the scooter running out of juice and you ditching it in some park somewhere) and taking steps to compel you to stay within range.

Neuron makes use of resources and tools provided by geospatial data company Esri, as part of the latter’s Singapore-based startup program. US-headquartered Esri makes Geographic Information System technology to create maps out of data, highlighting patterns, relationships, and insights within.

Its support program, also active in markets like the US, Europe, India, and Japan, gives participating young firms access to tools and resources, including its ArcGIS platform, collectively worth US$181,000 for three years. Neuron is the first startup to enter the program in Singapore.

“We let data drive some of our decisions,” Wang says. “At the end of the day what matters is not what you think people like but what people really like. We let them drive where this leads us in terms of demand and choices.”

Docking procedures

Riding toward scale